EA Partners' Nick Button-Brown has told GamesIndustry.biz that he believes European developers are more creative than US studios, as North American teams are focused on making money rather than taking chances.

I tend to agree with this article. I live in the U.S. but some of the most entertaining games I've played in the last 5 years have come from European developers. The Gothic Series, Divine Divinity, & Arx Fatalis to name the top 3.

However, the article loses 90 points for the repeated use of the term 'multiculturism.'

— If I'm right but there is no wife around to acknowledge it, am I still right?

Originally Posted by TheMadGamer
I tend to agree with this article. I live in the U.S. but some of the most entertaining games I've played in the last 5 years have come from European developers. The Gothic Series, Divine Divinity, & Arx Fatalis to name the top 3.

However, the article loses 90 points for the repeated use of the term 'multiculturism.'

Yeah, but it's the US gaming industry bitching about the lack of creativity in the US gaming industry. In fact, it's worse than that, it's EA, the company responsible for turning out the same game every year (NFL '08, NHL '08, NBA '08, FIFA '08, Sims: Expansion Pack 54, etc), that's bitching about the lack of creativity. It's like MacDonalds bitching about people being fat.

And just for the record, I don't think this qualifies as "irony," simply stupidity.

Actually this scares me, since this means their eyes are fully on EU, the last bastion of creative game development. Please, please tell me your governments subsidize you game companies or the EU commission prevents hostile takeovers?

Clearly they have bought up most of the US, Bioware and Crytek, why would they stop there? It's not if they need to buy more out of need of diversity, they clearly want to own IPs. IPs allow them to either sit on properties, so no one can use/compete with their crappy development models or to push unfinished shovelware out, then abandon support.
:damn no crying in your beer icon:

— Trust me, most of the names I have been called you can't translate in any language…they're not even real words as much as a succession of violent images.

Originally Posted by Acleacius
It's not if they need to buy more out of need of diversity, they clearly want to own IPs. IPs allow them to either sit on properties, so no one can use/compete with their crappy development models or to push unfinished shovelware out, then abandon support.
:damn no crying in your beer icon:

Quick! Buy them before we have to start competing with them!

— Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on. But it don't snow here. It stays pretty green. I'm going to make a lot of money, then I'm going to quit this crazy scene. — [Joni Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Acleacius
Clearly they have bought up most of the US, Bioware and Crytek, why would they stop there? It's not if they need to buy more out of need of diversity, they clearly want to own IPs. IPs allow them to either sit on properties, so no one can use/compete with their crappy development models or to push unfinished shovelware out, then abandon support.
:damn no crying in your beer icon:

Yes, I didn't see Irrational logo at all in Bioshock. Dealing with IPs is a game which publishers are accustomed to play.

Originally Posted by Acleacius
Actually this scares me, since this means their eyes are fully on EU, the last bastion of creative game development. Please, please tell me your governments subsidize you game companies or the EU commission prevents hostile takeovers?

Clearly they have bought up most of the US, Bioware and Crytek, why would they stop there? It's not if they need to buy more out of need of diversity, they clearly want to own IPs. IPs allow them to either sit on properties, so no one can use/compete with their crappy development models or to push unfinished shovelware out, then abandon support.
:damn no crying in your beer icon:

As far as the EU-commission goes, it keeps a very strict and stern eye out for takeovers, monopolies and corporations like Microsoft et al. who are using their
monopoly-like status to grow stronger and bully other companies around. The thing is this, though. In Europe, the member states of the EU still have some say over what happens in their countries regarding market laws and such things. And we don't really have anything as big as the steaming dragon, EA, over here -across the pond (from the US). We have, of course, Atari (or Infogrames), and also Ubisoft which is French, and then we have Eidos from Britain and maybe Activision, too? But a dominant player like EA we don't really have.

I do think that many of the goverments here in Europe subsidize gaming development since they tend to view the development of games more of an artform than anything to market, package and (re)sell like the US tend to do.
It really is the same way with movies. The movies from the US are fun, and meant to entertain and then be forgotten. European movies tend to be more artistic in their design as well as take more chances than the average US game or movie do.

Even Bioware seems to have been infested with this 'hey, we're a business corporation. Our first aim is to make money, e.g. our reason for being is to make money. If we then make enough money, we can maybe go design some great games'. At least that's what I have gotten from DA's Lead Writer, David Gaider's, statements at the Bioware forums. I wonder where 'the best story-driven games in the world' went??

The thing is this: If you build it, they will come - they will flock to the malls just in order to get your latest great designed game, not because of the hype, but because the game is just that good.

Call me an optimist, but I'm looking at EA and it's starting to look like the hugely fat man attempting to cross a rickety rope-and-plank suspension bridge over a chasm, after having downed a gallon of beer, a whole turkey, and a couple of pies earlier in the day.

Controlling the food-chain of the whole world - this is no joke, this is for real.

I'm still shivering over that.

And what for ?

Money = Power

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
I saw a fairly disturbing report yesterday on TV about a biotech company which tries to get hold of ALL pigs in our WHOLE world via patents…Controlling the food-chain of the whole world - this is no joke, this is for real.

This is the kind of stuff that the Dick Cheney's of the world laugh about at their country clubs over drinks while toasting and celebrating themselves. They think of gypsies, tarot cards and wolfsbane.

It's a whole different reality, being that rich and that powerful, I suppose. Who knows what to believe, really?

— Oh, I wish I had a river I could skate away on. But it don't snow here. It stays pretty green. I'm going to make a lot of money, then I'm going to quit this crazy scene. — [Joni Mitchell]

Last edited by Squeek; December 11th, 2007 at 23:36.
Reason: "tarot" not "torot" —oops

Originally Posted by dteowner
Your "more info" link seems to be pooched, Dhruin. It circles back on itself.

Sort of…but sort of not. This links to EA's entry in our database - if you click the link, you'll see extra tabs at the top that let you look at all of EA's news or the EA overview (which is rather empty). Perhaps this shouldn't default to the view of the current newsbit, so thanks.